Butterfly > Butterfly's Quotes

“The stars incline us, they do not bind us.”
― Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights

“Do you not listen to me when I speak?” he answered shakily, his lip quirking up. “I love you. I have always loved you.”
― Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights

“To have and to hold, where even death cannot part us,’ Juliette whispered.
‘In this life and the next,’ Roma returned, ‘for however long our souls remain, mine will always find yours.”
― Chloe Gong, Our Violent Ends

“Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.
No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Hey, um, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a friend of mine," he says. "Have you seen her? She's a tiny little thing, cries a lot, spends too much time with her feelings-"
"Shut up, Kenji!"
"Oh wait!" he says. "It is you.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Words are like seeds, I think, planted into our hearts at a tender age. They take root in us as we grow, settling deep into our souls. The good words plant well. They flourish and find homes in our hearts. They build trunks around our spines, steadying us when we’re feeling most flimsy; planting our feet firmly when we’re feeling most unsure. But the bad words grow poorly. Our trunks infest and spoil until we are hollow and housing the interests of others and not our own. We are forced to eat the fruit those words have borne, held hostage by the branches growing arms around our necks, suffocating us to death, one word at a time.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Please," he says. "I'm begging you to stop."

I still.

"I can't stomach your pain," he says. "I can feel it so strongly and it's making me crazy- please," he says to me. "Don't be sad. Or hurt. Or guilty. You've done nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't be sorry, either," he says. "God, the only reason I'm not going to kill Kent for this is because I know it would only upset you more.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“Good morning, sunshine." Kenji blinks in our direction.
"Morning," I say back.
"I wasn't talking to you," he says, trying to smile.
"I was talking to the sunshine.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“We can look at the darkness and let it consume us, or we can recognize that it’s only temporary, trusting that once it passes, the light will return,”
― Lynette Noni, The Blood Traitor

“Small steps are still steps.”
― Lynette Noni, The Blood Traitor

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“Loneliness is a strange sort of thing.
It creeps on you, quiet and still, sits by your side in the dark, strokes by your hair as you sleep. It wraps itself around your bones, squeezing so tight you almost can't breathe. It leaves lies in your heart, lies next to you at night, leaches the light out of every corner. It's a constant companion, clasping your hand only to yank you down when you're struggling to stand up.
You wake up in the morning and wonder who you are. You fail to fall asleep at night and tremble in your skin. You doubt you doubt you doubt.
do I
don't I
should I
why won't I
And even when you're ready to let go. When you're ready to break free. When you're ready to be brand-new. Loneliness is an old friend stand beside you in the mirror, looking you in the eye, challenging you to live your life without it. You can't find the words to fight yourself, to fight the words screaming that you're not enough never enough never ever enough.
Loneliness is a bitter, wretched companion.
Sometimes it just won't let go.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me

“Sticks and stones keep breaking my bones but these words, these words will kill me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me

“On the darkest days you have to search for a spot of brightness, on the coldest days you have to seek out a spot of warmth; on the bleakest days you have to keep your eyes onward and upward and on the saddest days you have to leave them open to let them cry. To then let them dry. To give them a chance to wash out the pain in order to see fresh and clear once again.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me

“I love it when you say my name,” he says. “I don’t even know why.”
“Warner isn’t your name,” I point out. “Your name is Aaron.”
His smile is wide, so wide. “God, I love that.”
"Your name?”
“Only when you say it.”
“Aaron? Or Warner?”
His eyes close. He tilts his head back against the wall. Dimples.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me

“Remind me to to make you smile like that again, when you aren't dying, and I have all the time in the world to memorise it.”
― Lauren Roberts, Powerless

“If I am to be her enemy, I want it to be because she loathes herself for wanting me.”
― Lauren Roberts, Powerless

“Will you forever be the prize I am aimlessly trying to win"
"Is that all I am to you? A trophy?"
"Oh, darling, a trophy implies that I won it, earned it, deserve it." He leans in farther, a certain reverence in his gaze. "But if i get to have you, it will be because you let me.”
― Lauren Roberts, Powerless